What? CNN claims Russians used Pokémon Go to meddle in U.S. election

On Thursday, CNN claimed in an exclusive report that Russians apparently tried to meddle in the 2016 election through YouTube, Tumblr and even the mobile game app Pokémon Go.

According to CNN:

One Russian-linked campaign posing as part of the Black Lives Matter movement used Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Tumblr and Pokémon Go and even contacted some reporters in an effort to exploit racial tensions and sow discord among Americans, CNN has learned.

The campaign, titled “Don’t Shoot Us,” offers new insights into how Russian agents created a broad online ecosystem where divisive political messages were reinforced across multiple platforms, amplifying a campaign that appears to have been run from one source — the shadowy, Kremlin-linked troll farm known as the Internet Research Agency.

A source familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN that the Don’t Shoot Us Facebook page was one of the 470 accounts taken down after the company determined they were linked to the IRA. CNN has separately established the links between the Facebook page and the other Don’t Shoot Us accounts.

The campaign posted on its Tumblr page to urge users to play Pokémon Go as part of a contest. It encouraged users to find Pokémon in places where police brutality had happened and then to rename their Pokémon after the victims.

“It’s clear from the images shared with us by CNN that our game assets were appropriated and misused in promotions by third parties without our permission,” Niantic, the makers of Pokémon Go, said in a statement provided to CNN.

“It is important to note that Pokémon GO, as a platform, was not and cannot be used to share information between users in the app so our platform was in no way being used. This ‘contest’ required people to take screen shots from their phone and share over other social networks, not within our game. Niantic will consider our response as we learn more,” the company said.

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To be clear, CNN is claiming that Russia tried to trick Americans into taking up a traditionally liberal cause, in alignment with Black Lives Matter (BLM), to divide America through racial tension and somehow drive voters into the arms of Donald Trump. The other logical conclusion which CNN somehow overlooked, is that said propaganda would have encouraged left-wing political activism – bringing sympathetic social justice warriors to the polls – ostensibly voting for Hillary Clinton.

So what’s the “evidence?” Zero Hedge sums that up as well:

CNN reports that the “Don’t Shoot Us” campaign Facebook page was linked to one of 470 Facebook accounts deemed to be linked to a Russian propaganda effort. The campaign’s YouTube videos lead people to donotshoot.us, which links to a Tumbler account. In July 2016, the Tumbler account announced the Pokémon Go contest to go find areas with reported police brutality

Their evidence that “Don’t Shoot Us” is Russian? A guy named Daniel Reed, described as the “Chief Editor” of DoNotShoot.us, emailed interview answers for an article to student-journalist Arpita Mitra of the website IPF (International Press Foundation) in a Word document, which Mitra forwarded to CNN. Upon analyzing the document’s metadata, CNN claims the Russian word for “name” was found in the document’s properties.

From that, CNN says two cybersecurity experts who reviewed the document said it was likely created on a computer or program running Russian as its primary language.

“Not quite a smoking gun,” Zero Hedge said, “but CNN has decided to run with it.”

And it’s not even clear that the effort had any impact on the election whatsoever. Again, Zero Hedge tells us:

Who participated?

Nobody, apparently.

CNN has not found any evidence that any Pokémon Go users attempted to enter the contest, or whether any of the Amazon Gift Cards that were promised were ever awarded — or, indeed, whether the people who designed the contest ever had any intention of awarding the prizes.

There you have it – Russians influenced US politics by taking up liberal social justice activism in alignment with Black Lives Matter, their endgame being to stoke racial tensions and somehow, some way, influence the election in favor of Donald Trump.

As it turns out, Hillary Clinton, the most evil person ever nominated to the White House by a major party, actually DID invoke Pokémon Go at one of her campaign events.

The presumptive Democratic nominee is going to jump on the craze surrounding the new Pokemon Go smartphone game to woo and register voters in the key swing state of Ohio, according to her campaign.

“Join us as we go to the Pokestop in Madison Park and put up a lure module, get free pokemon, & battle each other while you register voters and learn more about Sec. Hillary Clinton!!!,” the campaign said in a post on her website.

The event is listed as taking place at the Madison Park Pokestop and PokeGYM in Lakewood, Ohio, on Saturday between 1 and 2p.m.

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